PRE 1986

Pre 1986

Even the Outlaw Racer had to come from somewhere, and that somewhere was Dan and RJ Gottlieb’s search for a fatherson project — something to do together, at a time when young teenagers often drifted away from their parents to chase girls or hang out with “the wrong crowd.” Dan sought something meaningful for the two of them to bond over. And for a more sensible father and son, that might have involved fly tying or golf, but for the Gottliebs, it had to involve cars – and “sensible” was going to have nothing to do with it. So it all started with a 1971 Boss Mustang when RJ was 15. Dan and RJ were tinkering with what might have been a daily driver for RJ, father teaching son how to replace brake pads, radiator hoses, ignition points and other general maintenance stuff the kid would need to know. Dan Gottlieb always loved fast cars and racing, so RJ came by his love of motorsports naturally. He loved cars and he loved to drive them fast. As the son of a successful 

businessman, RJ was always a good-student, but after school let out, he just couldn’t get enough time behind the wheel, tear-assing around the streets of Los Angeles. Other things he tore up were the turbos on Dan’s Nissan 300ZX, and out on the deserted dirt paths of a developing subdivision, it was his best friend’s mother’s BMW 5-Series.Seeking to illustrate the subtle differences between “street driving” and “track racing,” Dan enrolled RJ in Bob Bondurant’s High Performance Driving School. At nearly 16, when most kids were just happy to be getting a driver’s license, RJ was expanding his horizons as he excelled at the professional driving school.
Following the Bondurant weekend, Dan and RJ were hungry to get involved in some actual competitive racing action, but RJ, at only 16, wasn’t going to be allowed by the Sports Car Club of America (SoCal’s track racing governing body at the time) to run at track events until he turned 18. So it was in a highly modified 1968 Camaro that RJ started participating in Super Stock 

Dan
1968 Camaro RJ Gottlieb

  Drag Racing, which only required drivers to be 16. After a few local events and with the help of a family friend and legendary drag racer Bob Lambeck guiding them through the hot-rod process, RJ moved up the NHRA Sportsman ranks, travelling to national events to compete with the big boys. The problem was that even after Dan invested in a Pro-Stock drag car the next season for RJ, competing against factory drivers and the likes of Pro-Stock legends Bob Glidden, Darrell Alderman and Warren Johnson was an extremely difficult task for a private team and young driver. Dan and RJ were a little disenchanted with the single-elimination format of NHRA drag racing, which often ended the weekend events early and without much seat time. During the drag-racing days, RJ still needed something to drive to school on a daily basis, and with the resignation that the Boss Mustang just wouldn’t be practical for a first car, Dan hooked up with another friend, Chris Kaufmann, who was a big player in the Fox Body Mustang racing scene in those days. 

 chris got them into a 1986 Mustang that was intended to stay bone stock so that it would be a practical form of transportation for the teenaged RJ, but with the help of Chris’ Ford Racing background, the three of them just couldn’t help themselves, and the thing got worked over many times. That’s when it all happened. Hungry to put his track-racing skills to work, and being “over it” with drag racing, Chris told Dan and RJ about a new event that he’d heard was taking place in Ensenada, Mexico, only a few hours from LA. The three of them speculated that if they could get the kid across the border, they probably wouldn’t have any trouble getting him into the race So, here it is, spring break 1986, RJ, Dan, and Chris are headed to Baja, Mexico, to drive in what would be the inaugural running of the La Carrera Classica, a truncated version of the iconic La Carrera Panamericana, across Mexico’s Highway 3 from Ensenada on the Pacific Coast to San Felipe on the Gulf of Cortez. It was RJ and Chris driving RJ’s modified Fox Body Mustang. Another competitor that year was Hollywood Stuntman/ Director Hal Needham, co-owner of the Harry Gant Skoal Bandit NASCAR Winton Cup Car. Needham drove the Super Speedway Cup Car to a decisive victory in the first-ever event. After the race, Dan said to Chris, “Next year, I don’t want to be embarrassed like this again; we’re gonna show up with something.” This is where the idea for a Camaro (RJ liked Camaros) with a monster engine came from. In the year that passed, they got busy. A ’68 Camaro was located, and Chris, along with help from many others like Dean Dodge, upgraded suspension components and brakes, and 

big red history
Big Red Damaged Car

added a rollcage. A 540-cubic-inch allaluminum Lingenfelter-built engine was fitted under the hood, and Recaro bucket seats with safety harnesses were added. Dan, RJ, and Chris headed back down for the La Carrera Classica 2 in 1987 for an exhausting 123-mile slugfest in what would prove to be an “enlightening” experience. From their previous year’s adventures, they knew the event was dangerous. Sure, it required a driver with good timing and the youthful disregard for his own mortality, and Dan knew his son met both requirements. What the father and son wanted most was an American muscle car that could beat the higherpriced European sports cars that were popular at these races.Drivers went off the mark in three-minute intervals to avoid accidents from passing at high speeds. With RJ at the wheel and Chris navigating, the red Camaro was the third car off the line. And it went quicky, closing the space between it and the cars in the first and second positions with alarming urgency. Nearly two thirds of the way through the race, the Camaro had pulled past the first two cars, and RJ was pushing in excess of 150 mph when the over-powered and underengineered Camaro went into the left-handed sweeper that proved too much for the untested suspension. With the chassis and steering linkage straining and vibrating, a steering heim came apart. Careening out of control, the car smashed into a 

roadside rock wall. The steering failed, but the rollcage held, and both RJ and Chris walked away from the accident that destroyed most of the car, save that massive engine and the rear end.destroyed most of the car, save that massive engine and the rear end. The highway course is “theoretically” closed to civilian traffic, but that isn’t always the case. Autoweek magazine mistakenly reported that the Camaro had crashed while avoiding a rogue truck driving on the course. While on their way home, Dan told RJ he’d better call his mom so she wouldn’t worry anymore. RJ located a pay phone, rang her up and told her, “Well, we had a little problem with the front tire.” Which was true…enough. A few weeks later, RJ’s mom, Marcia, read about the Mexico wreck in the Los Angeles Times. She was not happy. If they were going to continue racing, a full-on racing chassis would need to be built. So when Bill Osborne received the job to build Big Red, he realized he needed a donor car. Bill reached out to Joel Staggs (who worked for him) to see if he had a donor car available. Joel’s neighbor was a ’69 Camaro enthusiast, and happen to have one they could use. According to the VIN, which is still on Big Red’s dash today, the chassis was a 1969 Camaro with the 350 engine and air conditioning. The newly acquired ’69 was dropped off with Bill. Little did he know that what he was about to do next would live in the history books forever.

La Carrera costa a costa
Big Red Camaro Car driver

Even the Outlaw Racer had to come from somewhere, and that somewhere was Dan and RJ Gottlieb’s search for a fatherson project — something to do together, at a time when young teenagers often drifted away from their parents to chase girls or hang out with “the wrong crowd.” Dan sought something meaningful for the two of them to bond over. 

And for a more sensible father and son, that might have involved fly tying or golf, but for the Gottliebs, it had to involve cars – and “sensible” was going to have nothing to do with it. So it all started with a 1971 Boss Mustang when RJ was 15. Dan and RJ were tinkering with what might have been a daily driver for RJ, father teaching son how to replace brake pads, radiator hoses, ignition points and other general maintenance stuff the kid would need to know. Dan Gottlieb always loved fast cars and racing, so RJ came by his love of motorsports naturally. He loved cars and he loved to drive them fast. As the son of a successful. Businessman, RJ was always a good-student, but after school let out, he just couldn’t get enough time behind the wheel, tear-assing around the streets of Los Angeles. 

Other things he tore up were the turbos on Dan’s Nissan 300ZX, and out on the deserted dirt paths of a developing subdivision, it was his best friend’s mother’s BMW 5-Series.Seeking to illustrate the subtle differences between “street driving” and “track racing,” Dan enrolled RJ in Bob Bondurant’s High Performance Driving School. At nearly 16, when most kids were just happy to be getting a driver’s license, RJ was expanding his horizons as he excelled at the professional driving school. Following the Bondurant weekend, Dan and RJ were hungry to get involved in some actual competitive racing action, but RJ, at only 16, wasn’t going to be allowed by the Sports Car Club of America (SoCal’s track racing governing body at the time) to run at track events until he turned 18.

So it was in a highly modified 1968 Camaro that RJ started participating in Super Stock Drag Racing, which only required drivers to be 16. After a few local events and with the help of a family friend and legendary drag racer Bob Lambeck guiding them through the hot-rod process, RJ moved up the NHRA Sportsman ranks, travelling to national events to compete with the big boys.

Big Red Camaro Car driver

The problem was that even after Dan invested in a Pro-Stock drag car the next season for RJ, competing against factory drivers and the likes of Pro-Stock legends Bob Glidden, Darrell Alderman and Warren Johnson was an extremely difficult task for a private team and young driver. Dan and RJ were a little disenchanted with the single-elimination format of NHRA drag racing, which often ended the weekend events early and without much seat time. During the drag-racing days, RJ still needed something to drive to school on a daily basis, and with the resignation that the Boss Mustang just wouldn’t be practical for a first car, Dan hooked up with another friend, Chris Kaufmann, who was a big player in the Fox Body Mustang racing scene in those days. 

Chris got them into a 1986 Mustang that was intended to stay bone stock so that it would be a practical form of transportation for the teenaged RJ, but with the help of Chris’ Ford Racing background, the three of them just couldn’t help themselves, and the thing got worked over many times. That’s when it all happened. Hungry to put his track-racing skills to work, and being “over it” with drag racing, Chris told Dan and RJ about a new event that he’d heard was taking place in Ensenada, Mexico, only a few hours from LA. The three of them speculated that if they could get the kid across the border, they probably wouldn’t have any trouble getting him into the race So, here it is, spring break 1986, RJ, Dan, and Chris are headed to Baja, Mexico, to drive in what would be the inaugural running of the La Carrera Classica, a truncated version of the iconic La Carrera Panamericana, across Mexico’s Highway 3 from Ensenada on the Pacific Coast to San Felipe on the Gulf of Cortez. It was RJ and Chris driving RJ’s modified Fox Body Mustang. Another competitor that year was Hollywood Stuntman/ Director Hal Needham, co-owner of the Harry Gant Skoal Bandit NASCAR Winton Cup Car. Needham drove the Super Speedway Cup Car to a decisive victory in the first-ever event. After the race, Dan said to Chris, “Next year, I don’t want to be embarrassed like this again; we’re gonna show up with something.”

big red history
Big Red Camaro Car driver

 This is where the idea for a Camaro (RJ liked Camaros) with a monster engine came from. In the year that passed, they got busy. A ’68 Camaro was located, and Chris, along with help from many others like Dean Dodge, upgraded suspension components and brakes, and 

Big Red Damaged Car

added a rollcage. A 540-cubic-inch allaluminum Lingenfelter-built engine was fitted under the hood, and Recaro bucket seats with safety harnesses were added. Dan, RJ, and Chris headed back down for the La Carrera Classica 2 in 1987 for an exhausting 123-mile slugfest in what would prove to be an “enlightening” experience. From their previous year’s adventures, they knew the event was dangerous. Sure, it required a driver with good timing and the youthful disregard for his own mortality, and Dan knew his son met both requirements. What the father and son wanted most was an American muscle car that could beat the higherpriced European sports cars that were popular at these races.Drivers went off the mark in three-minute intervals to avoid accidents from passing at high speeds. With RJ at the wheel and Chris navigating, the red Camaro was the third car off the line. And it went quicky, closing the space between it and the cars in the first and second positions with alarming urgency. Nearly two thirds of the way through the race, the Camaro had pulled past the first two cars, and RJ was pushing in excess of 150 mph when the over-powered and underengineered Camaro went into the left-handed sweeper that proved too much for the untested suspension. With the chassis and steering linkage straining and vibrating, a steering heim came apart. Careening out of control, the car smashed into a 

roadside rock wall. The steering failed, but the rollcage held, and both RJ and Chris walked away from the accident that destroyed most of the car, save that massive engine and the rear end.destroyed most of the car, save that massive engine and the rear end. The highway course is “theoretically” closed to civilian traffic, but that isn’t always the case. Autoweek magazine mistakenly reported that the Camaro had crashed while avoiding a rogue truck driving on the course. While on their way home, Dan told RJ he’d better call his mom so she wouldn’t worry anymore. RJ located a pay phone, rang her up and told her, “Well, we had a little problem with the front tire.” Which was true…enough. A few weeks later, RJ’s mom, Marcia, read about the Mexico wreck in the Los Angeles Times. She was not happy. If they were going to continue racing, a full-on racing chassis would need to be built. So when Bill Osborne received the job to build Big Red, he realized he needed a donor car. Bill reached out to Joel Staggs (who worked for him) to see if he had a donor car available. Joel’s neighbor was a ’69 Camaro enthusiast, and happen to have one they could use. According to the VIN, which is still on Big Red’s dash today, the chassis was a 1969 Camaro with the 350 engine and air conditioning. The newly acquired ’69 was dropped off with Bill. Little did he know that what he was about to do next would live in the history books forever.

La Carrera costa a costa